10.1177/1052562904273378 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION / August 2005 Fornaciari, Lund Dean / ORGANIZATIONAL WORK DESIGN EXPERIENCING ORGANIZATIONAL WORK DESIGN: BEYOND HACKMAN AND OLDHAM Charles J. Fornaciari Florida Gulf Coast University Kathy Lund Dean Idaho State University Standard organizational behavior survey courses usually introduce students to the “nuts and bolts” of organizational work design and models that mechanize work. This article develops an experiential exercise that simulates working conditions that can foster greater student understanding of the affective, ethi- cal, and human aspects of work design. The exercise also offers a historical representation of work, helping students understand modern organizational interdependencies. We offer a description of the exercise and how it is run; debrief questions and typical student responses; possible applications, varia- tions, and pitfalls; and ancillary support items including a Web site with materials available for instructor use. Keywords: job design; ethics; whole person; simulation; unions; labor; work history Organizational behavior (OB) survey courses often introduce students to the “nuts and bolts” of organizational work design and structure. However, even complete and widely used OB texts (e.g., Ivancevich & Matteson, 2002; Nelson & Quick, 2005; Robbins, 2005) often limit this discussion to models that mechanize work; instructors cover matter-of-fact topics such as types of organizational structure, technological processes, and Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) job characteristics model (JCM) of skill variety, task iden- tity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback (please see Table 1 for a brief 631 JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION, Vol. 29 No. 4, August 2005 631-653 DOI: 10.1177/1052562904273378 © 2005 Organizational Behavior Teaching Society